Director Spike Lee included a masterclass in his visit to this year’s Love & Anarchy film festival

THE31st HELSINKI INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL, also referred to as Rakkautta & Anarkiaa (Love & Anarchy), came to a close on Sunday, having drawn in record breaking numbers. This year’s film festival attracted more than 60,000 visitors and featured almost 500 screenings. The numbers reveal how the festival’s popularity continues to grow, this year one out of every four screenings was sold out.

The festival brings together films and filmmakers from all over the world. This year’s honorary guest was none other than Spike Lee, who came to present his latest film, BlacKkKlansman. In addition to the screening of his Cannes Grand Prix-winning film, his 1989 film Do the Right Thing was presented in combination with a Masterclass on September 22 at the newly renovated Korjaamo Kino Bio Rex theatre.

Mobile gaming has taken over the whole world. Almost everyone has a mobile phone, and almost everyone with a mobile phone has downloaded at least one or two games or bookmarked a mobile gaming site. It’s completely understandable, while these games lack the depth of traditional console games, they provide quick doses of entertainment which fill the time, challenge the user, and even have the chance of winning the player money.

In Finland, a different game rules the charts on Apple devices, Android devices, and mobile websites, with each bringing mobile gamers a different way to enjoy themselves. These are those games that are currently ruling the smallest screens in Finland.

Martin Solveig (age 41) is a French DJ who started his career in 2002. He started by playing in nightclubs in Paris to now having his own radio show, a studio in L.A and playing almost two shows a day. We got the chance to interview him at the WKND-festival in Helsinki 19.8.2018. Here are the excerpts:

Q: You have been in Finland before, how do you like it here?

A: I landed an hour ago so I'm happy to be here, but I don't know much about it. Right now, I'm playing almost two shows a day, so it's a little bit you know, in and out. But in general the vibe in Finland it's super, it's great. My impression is that it's chill and quite beautiful, the weather is great right now.

The eco village with organic vegan food, a water bottle refilling spot, mobile sustainable home on show, eco-boat by the see, and a water circulating shower and sauna underlined the ecological approach of the festival.

There were 4 to 5 shows every day. Seminars, presentations and lectures were scheduled between the shows. All the designers had a 100% sustainable collection and brand. Each show was a whole universe of its own, and had its own vibe which was created by the collection and the accompanying music. The designers had got inspiration from different cultures and countries for their collections.

The Weekend festival is just around the corner. The main beach of the city of Helsinki, Hietaniemenranta will be transformed into a mega festival area from 17th to 19th of August. These years lineup includes David Guetta, Axwell & Ingrosso, Hardwell, Lil Yachty, Macklemore, Martin Garrix, and The Prodigy

The electronic music festival which started in 2012 has grown in size and character to a mega event and expanded to Estonia and Sweden. the festival has had more than 40 000 attendants each year and the popularity has been growing. This year, with a new venue in the Hietaniemenranta beach, the capacity of the festival will grow and the attendance level seems promising with 90% of the ticket types having been sold out.

THE FORECAST for the weekend of the 21st Tuska Open Air Metal Festival was not looking too good the week before. Torrential rains were promised for Friday and Saturday with temperatures around 10 degrees Celsius - Finnish summer at its best. Metal heads from all around the world were praying to the weather gods and stocking up on raincoats, rubber boots and gloves in preparation for yet another wet festival. But the gods seemed to listen: While Friday started off cloudy and temperatures did not reach proper summer heights, it stayed dry for the whole weekend with some blue skies and sun on Saturday and Sunday – summer festival atmosphere was a go!

Weekend festival is a music festival witch is held every year in Finland, Sweden and Estonia. The music genre is mainly EDM and dance music but other genres for example pop, rap and R&B are also presented.

This year it was held in Kyläsaari / Kalasatama, in Helsinki on Aug 4, - 5. The theme of the year was “Neon Dreams2. Previous themes have been “Year of the Tiger” (2016), “Super Digital” (2015) and “Electro Disco” (2014).

The artists performing there were mainly from the US, the UK and Finland, such as The chainsmokers,Marshmello, Rae Shemmurd, Alan Walker, Mikael Gabriel and Teflon Brothers, to name a few.

If there’s one thing that unites Nordic countries, it’s a spirit of political, cultural and social friendliness. We're the world’s good guys. Whether it’s the environment or financial regulation, an ethos seems to persist that values people rather than power, connection rather than competition, and fun rather than frenetic and brain-frying work culture.

This kind of approach endears the Nordic countries to the world at large, and is manifest in international phenomena like hygge, which can be roughly summarised as the national export of the idea of having a really nice time. There are very few nations or peoples from whom such an export would seem anything other than bizarre.

Tuska brings Finnish favorites and international metal heavy hitters to three stages from June 29 to July 1.

SCANDINAVIA’S LARGEST METAL FESTIVAL shows no sign of slowing down with its 21st edition this year. After the 20 year celebration last summer, the metal party continues this year with a jam-packed and very diverse line-up. From Friday, June 29 to Sunday, July 1 Suvilahti will once again turn into a sea of (mostly) black clad metal heads that will be rocking out to the tunes of Finnish favorites and international heavy hitters.

Anni Kinnunen is one of the 56 artists chosen for the exhibition. Anni Kinnunen: Hydrangea, 2018, from a still video

Mänttä Art Festival has been organized by its founding association 'Mänttä Art Lovers' since 1993, first as a biennial and, since 1999, annually. The event was recently awarded the prestigious Finland Prize, recognizing its long-standing work in the field of Finnish contemporary art. The title of the festival held this summer will be Roadmap. The festival, celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, will open to the public on June 17 and close at the end of August.

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Helsinki Times is the very first leading English language publication in Finland established in 2007, covering Finland related news on daily basis. A weekly print edition of Helsinki Times was published from March 2007 up until Feb. 2015.

At the moment Helsinki Times is an online only publication. Readers are mainly expats, diplomats and other international individuals, businesses and groups residing in Finland. Visitors are also tourists, individuals and businesses interested in Finland from all around the world.